UK's FTSE 100 slipped for a third straight session on Thursday on fears about the impact of more interest rate hikes, ahead of a key European Central Bank meeting later in the day.

The blue-chip index as well as the midcap FTSE 250 index were down 0.4% each by 0710 GMT. Both indexes were also set to log their third consecutive daily fall.

Energy was the only sector in the black, rising 0.5%, even as crude prices gave up early gains.

The ECB in a decision due at 11:45 a.m. GMT is likely to announce it is pulling the plug on years of stimulus and signal a string of rate rises to fight surging inflation.

Among stocks, British American Tobacco rose 0.8% after saying it was still working towards transferring its Russian business and that it was confident in delivering its financial targets irrespective of how long it takes to offload the unit.

British online electricals retailer AO World fell 1% after saying it plans to close its business in Germany. (Reporting by Anisha Sircar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)


Reuters